Thornton is suspended

'''There was a knee involved at the end of the period and then the game got physical and Joe wanted to make sure he stood up for his teammates,'' said O'Connell. ''I think that was the result of it. Possibly, if the referee had called a penalty on the kneeing, it might not have escalated to that point. We didn't play as well as we can and [Carolina] played a very good game. I think Joe has got to learn to control it a little bit more and I think he will."'